There’s no benefit over, and I can’t see anyone switching from Google’s established website to Apple’s new Maps app, regardless of how pretty it is. While Maps makes perfect sense on a mobile device (and has improved a lot since iOS 6), its usefulness in Mavericks is much less apparent. Apple Maps is a strange cross between Google Maps and Google Earth, and doesn’t seem to need its own spot in your dock. It’s not the only app that feels out of place on a desktop, either. There are plenty of options that change theme and size, but the simple truth is that no matter which settings you choose, your MacBook Air will never be a Kindle Paperwhite. One missing action is the ability to pinch to zoom on pages, an odd omission for an interface that relies so heavily on touch and gestures. Instead, pages simply scroll to the left as you progress through a book. Maps doesn’t need its own spot in your dockĪpple says you can swipe the trackpad to 'flip' through pages, but most traces of skeuomorphism are gone - you won't see any page-turn animations here. Some may find yet another standalone store to be annoying - it might be better to have iBooks built into iTunes, but it’s nice to be only a click away from the all-important New York Times bestseller list. It’s hard to get excited about reading novels on a full-fledged laptop or iMac, but Apple's execution is pretty much all you could ask for, with a built-in store and a really nice interface. The iOS portsĪpple is freeing iBooks from the iPhone and iPad and bringing it to the Mac. Instead, Apple focused this time on new apps for OS X. Most of the other core apps haven’t changed much, and Messages and Mail are more basically the same apps as ever. Apple’s redesigned apps should have received redesigned icons, and the result leaves things feelings slightly old-fashioned. As much as people disliked iOS’ new icons, there’s a certain cohesiveness about having all the styles match up. The Notes icon is still a yellow legal pad, which looks odd against the improved design. Notes has also lost its skeuomorphism, replacing the fake yellow-lined paper with a subtly-patterned off-white sheet - though it’s still just an ultra-simple app that syncs with your iPhone.īut for all the design changes, Apple forgot about the icons. Contacts now looks more like an email client, with a column of names on the left and detailed information in a larger window on the right - a big improvement over past versions’ book-like design, complete with fake binding stitching. Contacts and Notes also received much-needed facelifts, but little more.

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